Birmingham’s Art in the Public Realm Strategy
We are currently updating our public art strategy. The new strategy will be called ‘Being Our City: Birmingham Art in the Public and Private Realm Strategy 2025-2045’.
It will set new ambitions for art in the public realm, and call for new ways of organising, talking about, making decisions about and managing public art.
The strategy will make sure that public art contributes meaningfully to the cultural and visual identity of the city, while supporting wider ambitions for community and cultural engagement, placemaking, and sustainable development.
It works alongside our cultural strategy, heritage strategy, and Birmingham Development Plan 2031, as well as other city council, regional and national strategies and policies.
The strategy refresh is supported by West Midlands Combined Authority’s and HM Government’s Commonwealth Games Legacy Enhancement Fund.
Art in the Public Realm Strategy 2015 to 2019
Our existing strategy considers the definition of public art in its widest sense. It retells the story of a century of rich and varied public art practices in Birmingham that have laid the bedrock for a strong future of creativity for decades to come. It imagines what could come next and how we could collaborate to make it happen.
The strategy:
- sets out a clear vision for public art in Birmingham
- advocates the role of public art for Birmingham’s economy and communities
- ensures public art programmes are included in new developments where appropriate, and in particular, major developments
- encourages partnership working with a range of private and public stakeholders to diversify and strengthen sustainable funding for public art in Birmingham
- ensures the management and maintenance of our public art is appropriate and of a high quality
- engages artists, residents, and other partners with the developments in their city through public art programmes
- improves conditions for adequately funded new art commissioning and collaborative place-based creative practice for temporary and permanent art
- provides policies and guidance for the development and implementation of public art in Birmingham, ensuring public art enquiries and new schemes are taken through the Public Art Gateway Group (PAGG)
Download the public art strategy 2015 to 2019.
Page last updated: 23 July 2026
